Module 1

Section 3
Duration : 3 Hours

• Inductors : types, specifications, Principle of

working
• Transformers: types, specifications, Principle of
working

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 INDUCTORS
INTRODUCTION
• An inductor is a passive device created by
wrapping wire around a core.
• Inductors are also called “chokes” or “coils”.
• It’s a device capable of storing magnetic energy
by virtue of current flowing through it.
• It opposes the current flowing through it and
induces a voltage.
• When time-varying current passes through the
coil a magnetic field is created and a voltage is
“induced” across the coil.
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 INDUCTORS
• Generally - coil of conducting
wire
• Usually - wrapped around a
solid core

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 INDUCTORS
PRINCIPLE OF WORKING
magnetic magnetic flux, f windings (N = 5.5 turns in this diagram)
field lines
core

+ v(t) -
i(t)
A current, i(t) is passed A voltage, v t is induced
through the windings across the windings
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 INDUCTORS
• It’s a device capable of storing energy by virtue of
current flowing through it.
• It opposes the current flowing through it and
induces a voltage.

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 INDUCTORS
• Inductor current does not change simultaneously.
• It offers high impedance to ac & low impedance to dc.
• When a current flows through a coiled wire, an emf
(called back emf) is generated in such a way that it
opposes the current flow.
• Specially made components consisting of coiled copper
wire are called inductors.
• Inductors range from 0.1µH(Used in HF systems)-50
H(Used in LF systems)

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 INDUCTOR NETWORKS
• Inductors in • The current through inductors
a parallel configuration in series stays the same, but the
each have the same voltage across each inductor can
potential difference be different.
(voltage).
• The sum of the potential
• To find their total differences (voltage) is equal to
equivalent inductance the total voltage.
(Leq):
• To find their total inductance:

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INDUCTOR TYPES
Based on Material of
Core
1. Air core
2. Iron core
3. Ferrite core
4. Powder core
Based on Construction
1. Laminated Core
2. Toroidal Core
3. Film Inductor

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 AIR CORE INDUCTOR
• Thin copper wire wound
over thick card board.
• Low value of inductance
• Used in high frequency
(Radio frequency)
applications.
• Free from core losses
occurring at high
frequencies in ferromagnetic
cores.
• Drawback – Microphony
(Mechanical vibrations of
the inductor)
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 IRON CORE
• Copper wire wound on a laminated iron core
• It avoid eddy current loss (loss due to a localized
electric current induced in a conductor by a varying
magnetic field).
• Used for AF applications.

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FERRITE CORE

• Coil of wire wound on a

ferromagnetic material.
• In variable inductors, Ferrite
core is made movable in and
out of the coil.
• Variable inductors are used in
frequency tuning applications

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 POWDER CORE
• Used in high frequency
applications.
• Have low core losses at
any given frequency and
low permeability.
• By special processing,
iron particles are
insulated from each
other.
• The particles are mixed
with a binder
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 TOROIDAL INDUCTOR
• Wire wounded on core which has ring or donut
shaped surface.
• These are generally made up of different materials
like ferrite, powdered iron and tape wound etc.
• These inductors mainly used in medical devices,
switching regulators, air conditioners, refrigerators,
telecommunications and musical instruments etc.

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 TOROIDAL INDUCTOR
• This inductor has high coupling.
• In an inductor wound on a straight rod-shaped core,
the magnetic field lines emerging from one end of the
core must pass through the air to re-enter the core at the
other end.
• This reduces the field, because much of the magnetic
field path is in air rather than the
higher permeability core material.
• A higher magnetic field and inductance can be achieved
by forming the core in a closed magnetic circuit.
• Its arrangement gives minimum loss in magnetic flux
which helps to avoid coupling magnetic flux with other
devices.
• It has high energy transferring efficiency and high
inductance values at low frequency applications.
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 LAMINATED CORE
• Used in low frequency inductors.
• Laminated cores prevent eddy currents.

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 FILM INDUCTOR
• These uses a film of conductor on base material.
• Thus according to the requirement this film is
shaped for conductor application.
• Film inductors in thin size are suitable for DC to
DC converters that serve as power supplies in smart
phones and mobile devices.
• The Rf thin film inductor is shown below:

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 CHOKES
• Choke is an inductor that is used to block
higher – frequency alternating current (AC),
while passing lower – frequency or direct
current.
• Chokes are of 3 types
 Filter chokes
Audio frequency chokes (AF Choke)
Radio Frequency chokes (RF Choke)
• AF choke is used to provide high impedance
to audio frequencies
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 FILTER CHOKES
• It has many turns of fine wire wound on an
iron core made of laminated sheets of E & I
shapes .
• Used in smoothing the pulsating current.
• Used in power supplies in the range 1H to
50H.
• Current capacity upto 500mA.

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 AUDIO FREQUENCY
CHOKES(AFCS)
• To provide high impedance to audio frequencies
(50 Hz to 5KHz).
• They are bulky in size .
• Lower inductance compared to filter chokes.

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 Radio Frequency Chokes(RFCs)
• Used to block RFs (>10 KHz).
• Smaller than AFCs.
• Many turns of wire wound on an air core.
• Very small values of inductance( 2mH).

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 VARIABLE INDUCTORS
• Used in applications like tuning circuits, phase
shifting and switching.
• It can be
1) tap switching or
2) movable core type

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 TAP SWITCHING
• Inductance is varied by switching from one tap
on the coil to another.

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 MOVABLE CORE TYPE

• As the core is inserted more into the coil, inductance

increases.
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INDUCTOR SPECIFICATIONS
1. Inductance : The key parameter for any inductor
is its inductance (value).
2. DC Resistance (DCR) : is the amount of
resistance that an inductor has for signals with
frequencies of or near 0Hz.
• The DCR of an inductor is normally very small,
and is designed to be kept low.
3. Maximum DC Current : is the maximum level
of continuous direct current that can be passed
through an inductor with no damage.

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INDUCTOR SPECIFICATIONS
4. Electromagnetic Interference : refers to the amount of
magnetic field radiated away from the inductor into space.
• The field may cause interference with other magnetically
sensitive components and may require consideration in
circuit design and layout.
5. Magnetic Saturation Flux Density (Bsat) : indicates the
maximum flux the core material can be induced to hold.
• At this value of flux density, all magnetic domains
within the core are magnetized and aligned.
6. Curie Temperature : is the temperature beyond which
the core material of the inductor loses its magnetic
properties.

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 INDUCTOR APPLICATIONS
1. Filters : Inductors are used extensively with
capacitors and resistors to create filters for analog
circuits and in signal processing.
• Alone, an inductor functions as a low-pass filter
2. Sensors : Inductors can be used to sense magnetic
fields or the presence of magnetically permeable
material from a distance.
3. Transformers : Combining inductors that have a
shared magnetic path will form a transformer.

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 INDUCTOR APPLICATIONS II
4. Tuned Circuits : Inductors are used in tuning circuits
which are used to select the desired frequency.

• In a tuned circuit, we have capacitor connected

along with the inductor, either in parallel or series.
• The frequency of the tuning circuit at which the
capacitive reactance is equal to the inductive
reactance (XC = XL) is called ‘esonant F e uency .
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INDUCTOR APPLICATIONS III
5. Relays : A relay is like an electrical switch, which
uses inductor coil to control the current flow in it.

6. Electromagnets
7. Automotive Ignition Coils
8. Moving coil Microphones & Loudspeakers
9. Transformers

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Vidya Academy of Science & Technology 29
 TRANSFORMER
INTRODUCTION
• Transformer is a static device which transforms
electrical energy from one circuit to another
without any direct electrical connection.
• It transforms the electrical energy with the help
of mutual induction between two windings.
• It transforms power from one circuit to another
without change in frequency, but the voltage may
be in different levels.

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STRUCTURE OF
TRANSFORMER

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CIRCUIT SYMBOL FOR
TRANSFORMER

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 TRANSFORMER
CONSTRUCTION
All transformers have three parts:
1. Primary coil – the incoming voltage Vp (voltage
across primary coil) is connected across this coil.
2. Secondary coil – this provides the output voltage Vs
(voltage across the secondary coil) to the external
circuit.
3. Laminated iron core – this links the two coils
magnetically.
• Notice that there is no electrical connection between
the two coils, which are constructed using insulated
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 PRINCIPLE OF WORKING
OF A TRANSFORMER
1. When current in the primary
coil changes being alternating
in nature, a changing
magnetic field is produced
2. This changing magnetic field
gets associated with the
secondary through the soft
iron core
3. Hence magnetic flux linked
with the secondary coil
changes.
4. It induces e.m.f. in the
secondary.
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 TWO TYPES OF
TRANSFORMER
• A step-up transformer increases the voltage - there
are more turns on the secondary than on the primary.
• A step-down transformer decreases the voltage - there
are fewer turns on the secondary than on the primary.
• To step up the voltage by a factor of 10, there must be
10 times as many turns on the secondary coil as on the
primary.
• The turns ratio tells us the factor by which the voltage
will be changed.
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 STEP UP

STEP DOWN

36
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 ANOTHER
CLASSIFICATION

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 FORMULA FOR
TRANSFORMER
voltage across the primary coil number of turns on primary

voltage across the secondary coil number of turns on secondary

Vp Np

Vs Ns
Where Vp = primary voltage
Vs = secondary voltage
Np= Number of turns in primary coil
Ns = Number of turns in a secondary coil.
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 RF TRANSFORMERS
• Can be iron or air core
• Used in applications with frequency>
50KHz.
• Ferrite core or powdered iron cores
are used.
• Windings are wound around a
ceramic material.
• They are shielded to reduce
undesirable coupling & feedback
effects.
• Shape of the core is like a threaded
form, like a screw.
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 POWER TRANSFORMER
• Power Tansformers are of two types:
1. Step Up Transformer
2. Step Down Transformer
• In step up transformers, the number of turns in primary
windings is less than that in secondary windings.
• In step down transformers, the number of turns in
primary windings is more than that in secondary
windings.
• Step down transformers are extensively used in dc
power supplies.

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 POWER TRANSFORMER
SPECIFICATIONS
1. Voltage Rating : It is the rated primary and
secondary voltage of the transformer.
2. Current Rating: It is the maximum current that the
transformer winding can carry.
3. Power Rating : It is the maximum power which can
be continuously delivered by the transformer. It is
expressed in volt – amperes.
4. Frequency Range: It is the range of frequencies in
which the transformer operates without failure.
5. Regulation : It is a measure of the ability of the
transformer to maintain a rated output voltage under
load. It is expressed n percentage.
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 INTERMEDIATE FREQUENCY
TRANSFORMER
• The design of high frequency circuits is comparatively
difficult.
• So, in the radio receivers, radio frequencies are reduced
to lower frequency called intermediate frequency (IF).
• Intermediate frequency transformer (IFT) that is tunable
to IF.
• Standard IF in radio reception is 455kHz.
• IFT is designed to respond to this frequency only.
• The assembly of IFT enclosed in an aluminium can,
includes a capacitance of 40pF and an inductance of
3mH.
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 AUDIO TRANSFORMERS
• Work at frequencies up to 20khz.

• Employed in microphones, loud speakers & audio

amplifiers.
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AUDIO TRANSFORMERS
• As the name implies, these transformers are used
in AF applications for voltage, current and
impedance transformation.
• Input transformers are used to couple a low
impedance source such as microphone, with a
high impedance circuit like amplifiers.
• Output Transformers are used in Public
Addressing (PA) system, radio receivers etc., to
match the high output impedance of an amplifier
with loudspeaker having low impedance.

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 TRANSFORMER
APPLICATIONS
1. Impedance matching : they can be used to “convert”
the impedance of a load to a different level.
2. Potential transformers : Transformers can also be
used in electrical instrumentation systems, to
accurately measure the very high voltage of a power
system, by stepping down the voltage to a safe limit.
3. Current transformers :Following the same line of
thinking, we can use a transformer to step down
current through a power line so that we are able to
safely and easily measure high system currents with
inexpensive ammeters.
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 TRANSFORMER APPLICATIONS
• Linear Variable
Differential Transformer
: A movable
ferromagnetic slug
converts displacement to a
variable voltage by
changing the coupling
between the driven
primary and secondary
windings.
• The LVDT is a
displacement or distance
measuring transducer.
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VARIABLE TRANSFORMERS

• The variable-sweep contact provided a simple

means of voltage control with little wasted power,
much more efficient than control using a variable
resistor.

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 Auto Transformer
• Auto transformer is kind of electrical transformer
where primary and secondary shares same common
single winding.
• So basically it’s a one winding transformer.

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